Son Of David
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Sometimes we need someone to step in and provide what we’re lacking…
Pray
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). 24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
Joseph get’s messenger from God. This wasn’t his first message.
They were betrothed, legally bound, but not living together.
Joseph hears that Mary is pregnant. Did Mary tell him? Common friends?
Joseph has options in his response. He must break it off. Will he look good, will he make her a pariah? He could have.
But Joseph choses to leave Mary in the best state he could for her, to avoid as much shame as possible for her and her family.
Joseph got his message. But he didn’t have an opportunity to tell Mary! “While he was considering these things”.
Did he consult HIS father? did he spend time in prayer? Did he ask the rabbis at the synagogue what his options were?
Joseph and Mary were still under their parents household. How much this would have affected them! How could they have understood - or believed - what was really going on?
But Joseph was visited by an angel...
This child will be more that you or Mary.
There is another option, Joseph. Don’t leave her in shame. Don’t leave her protected.
Stay, and be the father!
Joseph takes the role of father - but this passage drives us to that question: Who is the Father of Jesus? And what does that mean?
Jesus’ Father:
Jesus’ Father:
God the Father
God the Father
Fatherhood was a huge deal in ancient cultures. Even more so than today.
It’s how you belonged. It connected families and communities
It was inheritance.
It was identity.
Names also were a huge part of who you were. Fathers had sole privilege to give a name. So when the angel says God directs his name to bo Jesus - God claims fatherhood.
As the actual, very son of God, what does that mean for Jesus?
It’s connecting the community of heaven to the community of humanity.
Marriages used to connect kingdoms. My prince and your princes.
So God brought His essence into the courts of broken humanity.
It’s everything of God’s in the person of Jesus
John 1:14 “14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Some identify the incarnation as the supreme miracle of Jesus on earth. More than other miracles, greater than the resurrection. To house the FULL glory and grace of God in the weakest and feeblest form.
His purpose was His identity. The King kings. The Kingdom is inseparable from the King. This is the reality of Jesus, the Son of the living God
Luke 1:32 “32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High…”
Joseph as Father
Joseph as Father
Many of us are parents. When your first child is born, it’s unavoidable to be overwhelmed by the responsibility of raising another human!
How could Joseph raise the Son of God? To be responsible for His safety, guidance, training?
One hint we have as to how he did that was in verse 21. ‘you shall call His name Jesus,’. Joseph was faced with impossible situation after impossible situation. But he found a path forward by turning his authority and responsibility over to God. Not being irresponsible, but acknowledging the rightful authority.
Jesus drive right at this very idea when He questioned the pharisees:
41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, 42 saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” 43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, 44 “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet” ’? 45 If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”
If it held for David, so for Joseph. Household authority, yet servant. Leader, yet submissive. For Joseph, impossible… without giving authority and responsibility to it’s rightful owner - God.
We struggle with many things because we hold on to responsibility and authority God has asked us to give to Him. Are we able to manage what God has given us without His directing, intervening? Without a savior who is in actuality our Lord, we continue to endeavor the impossible.
Jesus enters our lives as He did Josephs.
God reveals Himself first to us.
God will bring Himself into our lives - and the world wont understand.
But what God conceived in us will bear fruit that is far beyond ourselves.
And that which He produces will be deliverance from sin. Not only ours but others.
Joseph was father of Jesus ‘in name only’. But because Joseph was obedient and submissive to God, God gave Joseph everything He needed to overcome the impossible. Is there impossible in front of you??
David was another who faced the impossible. And what did he say?
8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! 9 Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack!
David, Abraham, Adam too!
David, Abraham, Adam too!
[Fill in names later]
Notice in Matthew that Joseph is called son of David. It was common to be called son of any of your ancestors. It was the genealogical transitive property! (Math joke!)
In calling Joseph ‘Son of David’, Matthew is pointing to the fact that Jesus was also the Son of David. There are two lines of connection that is drawn here. There was an position that is transferred. And there is a promise that is fulfilled.
David:
Position of King.
Promise of eternal authority.
We see these in what Jesus read to the Pharisees. David prophecies about a son of His at who’s feet he would bow! So we see that the kingdom isn’t passed DOWN through the generations, but the true kingdom is established by Jesus. David’s Kingdom was the placeholder, the foreshadow, the precursor to the true kingdom. David help it in trust, as did His sons. But they did not keep well what was entrusted to them.
Jesus then does not walk into an established kingdom, but picks up the broken rubble and redeems that kingdom that is rightly His. Jesus position is not like the King in England, who has all the trapping of King, but is rather insignificant in the grand scheme of things. King Charles didn’t establish the nation, define it’s borders, overcome it’s adversaries, fend off the attack, or define it’s subjects. But in Jesus’ Kingdom, He does.
And that means that He reigns with eternal authority. Authority not only over people and places on this earth, but in heavenly places over spiritual beings. Jesus’ reign is the complete when David’s was the partial. Jesus’ was the total, when David’s was limited. Jesus’ endless when David’s faded. Jesus’ the fulfillment when David’s the promise.
So as Son of David, Jesus takes of the position and the promise that God gave to David.
Abraham:
David isn’t the only father of Jesus in this ancestral lineage. We could look at many, but there are three that have bearing this morning.
2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, 18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”
This is known as the Abrahamic covenant. The promise of God to Abraham to bless the whole world. To multiply him and make him into a nation great and innumerable.
Abraham’s position was one who was selected, called out, chosen. He was appointed by God to be God’s representation on earth. The nation to be God’s people. Abraham was the ‘singularity’.
In a black hole, there is tremendous mass and gravity. It affects everything around it, even when it appears to be invisible. Not even light can escape. All that mass in pulled in on itself into a point so small it take up basically no space - a point - a singularity. Abraham had inside him a nation innumerable. The presence and blessing of God. Though it looked like an old dried out man - he gave of no indication of glory. But God chose him form glory.
Jesus is the singularity on the other side of this lineage. All that was promised. All that God chose Abraham for was wrapped up in Jesus, in swaddling cloth, in a manger, under the stars.
A black hole might seem imperceptible from certain distances. If your right in front of it, you cant help but be pulled in. from far enough back, you can see galaxies swaying to it’s influence. But if you’re in that Goldilocks range - not too close or too far - it might seem imperceptible.
Jesus, as the second singularity is the same. At Jesus’ birth heaven and earth were pulled into His glory. Angels and shepherds. Wisemen and donkeys.
As Abraham’s son - the singularity of the promise - how close are you to Jesus? WE can answer that by how close we WANT to be to Jesus. But a far more telling question is can you move on your own will, or are you captured by His gravity?
Abraham was captured by God’s gravity. Leave where you are, go where I will show you… so he did.
Jesus, as Son of Abraham, forces us to follow Him or flee. Follow Him and you’ll be pulled in by His Gravity. Flee, and you’ll never get far enough to be away from His control. But you won’t be under His promise and blessing.
Adam:
One more father of Jesus to finish the story. That’s Jesus, the Son of Adam.
Now Adam gets a bad wrap. Is it undeserved? HE brought sin into the world of humanity. It was all just fine Adam until YOU messed it up! That’s true. But also true is that every single other person who ever lived would have done the same thing! Proof? Well, we all HAVE! We are all dead in our sins. But then came Jesus…
Jesus came to bring life from death. Hope to hopelessness. He was born into a world of death. Even the nature of His birth was necessary because of this.
Jesus brings resurrection!
42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
In this passage Paul points to Adam as the representitive of humanity. WE are all in the same sin Adam brought. There is an idea here called Federal Headship. One who stands to represent many. There are those who take this idea (that Paul is using right here) and apply it wildly to broadly. But here Paul makes the point that we are all in the same sin as Adam.
Adam is OUR father. We have inherited from him life in the flesh, but death in our souls because of sin. Adam rebelled from God. WE rebel from God. Adam of of the dust; we are of the dust.
But Adam is Jesus’ father too. This is the sense that Jesus is the second Adam. But Jesus wasn’t just given life in the body, He brought life to our spirits.
Adam sin brought death. In that sin, we all die.
Jesus brought life. And when we trust Him and surrender our rebellion, He brings life to us!
Adam held the position of first born of humanity. Jesus inherits the firstborn over death. We inherit our bodies from Adam. But we can only inherit heaven from Jesus.
Adam was given a promise of God’s presence. To walk with God in the garden. But because of his sin he was exiled from God’s presence.
Jesus inherits that promise and provides the path to return. That path is his death. Jesus’ birth and death are both pathways. For God to enter humanity, and for people to return to God.
6 This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.
There are several ways we can interpret what ‘by water and blood’ mean. Water might mean Jesus’ baptism or His birth. Blood might mean His body of flesh or it might mean His death of the cross, shedding His blood for our sins.
These different interpretations are really talking about the same thing.
That in Jesus came the sinless son of God. Born of a virgin, without sin but bearing the curse of it.
That on Jesus came the full punishment of that sin, that he might make atonement for our fault. Jesus came as son of Adam that He might be the firstborn of a new creation.
Jesus. Was. Born.
That makes all the difference in the world! Wont you let him make a difference in your life today?
Pray
Notes
Notes
God’s message to Joseph through the Angel:
Do not fear. His presence or his message.
Trust what I’m doing, not what others perceive.
Give Him the name from me, not from you.
The reason for God’s authority and section of the name is because - it points to - His work of redemption.
If elohim transgressed by breading with humans, then this plan by God to come to the world was directly related. Jesus’ very presence is judgement against the fallen elohim. It also means that Jesus didn’t set aside in full His authority and glory in heaven and come to earth without it, it means He set his glory while in the body. It was an ongoing, active submission to God; a tangible intentional dependance of God in each moment. The temptation in the wilderness was Satan goading Jesus to do what he knew He was able to, but chose not to.
Jesus’ Father is God - God had the naming rights.
Jesus’ Father is Joseph - Joseph acted rightly Towards God (submitted to taking Mary, her son, while submitting to God’s claim over Jesus) toward Mary (abstained, desired her best outcome, then took the mantle of husband), Toward Jesus (adopted Him, taught Him, suffered for Him)
Jesus’ Fathers David, Abraham, and Adam -
From David, the promised King, He established His Kingdom.
From Abraham, the promise of the covenant to bless the whole world.
From Adam, He restores fellowship with God and overcomes the curse of sin.